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Colorado delegation, minus Lamborn, presses on wind-tax credit

The American Wind Energy Association estimates that about 4,000 jobs in the wind-energy sector nationwide have disappeared. (Daily Camera file)

WASHINGTON — With thousands of wind manufacturing jobs already gone — including 500 in Colorado — eight of nine members of the state's delegation say they are furiously working to try to save the wind-energy tax credit before it expires in six weeks.

The tax credit, which costs between $1 billion and $3 billion a year, helps support the wind-energy industry that fosters manufacturing facilities in 44 states and accounts for tens of thousands of jobs.

Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, along with a handful of other Republican and Democratic senators, have cleared the first hurdle in getting the extension passed through a Senate committee. It still needs approval from the full Senate and the House to pass.

"This is my thing because there are a lot of jobs that are already in place with nice benefits packages that we're at risk of losing," Udall said, noting that he recently met a man in Pueblo who had been freshly laid off from Vestas. "These are people's lives. ... I'm going to keep fighting."

The tax credit has robust bipartisan support in the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, but it hasn't had much legislative success this year because it has been attached to less popular proposals or caught in the gridlock in Congress.

There have been at least a half-dozen attempts to get a "clean" — meaning no strings attached — vote on the measure but to no avail.

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"I hope we take the lame out of lame duck and we pass the wind-production-tax credit as part of the broader conversation," Bennet said. "I don't have any doubt in the end that it's going to pass, but we're already seeing damage done."

Industry leaders say they started slowing future projects because they didn't know what was going to happen with the tax credit — which costs 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour produced by large wind turbines.

Wind leaders have told Congress throughout the year that they are OK with a one- or two-year extension.

But against the backdrop of uncertainty, the American Wind Energy Association estimates about 4,000 jobs have been lost nationwide already.

"The 2013 market is looking really soft," said Rob Gramlich, a senior vice president at the association. "Now is the time. ... We're ready to go; we've been waiting around on this the whole time."

On the House side, the three Colorado Republicans who support it have written letters to congressional leadership trying to get a vote on some of the proposed measures that would extend the credit.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, doesn't support it because he says he doesn't believe the federal government should pick winners and losers in energy development.

Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, talked to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, about it during a visit to his district on the Eastern Plains. Gardner said he has also worked to get an extension folded into the still-pending Farm Bill.

"We're searching for every possible answer to get this done," Gardner said.

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, has a Vestas facility in his district that has already laid off people.

Tipton said that despite the tax credit's steep price tag, he supports extending it and finding a way to pay for it.

"It's not pretty. The financial situation is tough right now," he said. "But this is important to our country. We need to continue to pursue achieving American independence."

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